


Prophecy

by weepingwillow



Series: Merlin Memory Month Fics [8]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, could be merthur if you squint hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 06:39:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10893801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weepingwillow/pseuds/weepingwillow
Summary: Mordred was going to grow up to be evil. He was going to kill Arthur. It was his destiny.





	Prophecy

Merlin held the knife up over Mordred’s chest as he watched it rise and fall. In a minute, any minute, he’d bring the blade down between Mordred’s ribs and kill him. It would be fast, it would be painless, and it would save the world so much tragedy.

 

Mordred was going to grow up to be evil. He was going to kill Arthur. It was his destiny. Without Merlin’s intervention, it would happen, and Arthur would die too young, with a lifetime still ahead of him. The kingdom would lose the greatest King they would ever know. And Merlin would lose so much.

 

But now, Mordred was small, and soft, and hopeful. He was in so much pain, and yet he carried on. He refused to cry. He saw the scaffold built for his father grow taller every day and still he watched. A brave, courageous heart. Merlin saw nothing of himself in Mordred - he saw more. He saw Arthur. His strength, his compassion. His love. He could not understand how two people so similar could be each other’s downfall.

 

He thought about Morgana, caring for the little boy, and the warmth he brought out in her. He thought of Arthur’s protectiveness, his promise that no harm would come to one so young.

 

He put down the knife. The dragon must be mistaken. The dragon must be thinking of someone else. This Mordred could only do good, surely. He could open Arthur’s eyes to the truth about magic. He could calm Morgana into a force for good. Surely, surely someone like that couldn’t cause that much misery.

 

Mordred cracked his eye open, and he watched Merlin put the knife away in confusion and dread. And the hard seed of a feeling set root in his heart. The feeling that he was hunted, persecuted. The feeling that he was different.


End file.
